A posting from Owen Ambur (Co-Chair, Federal CIO Council XML Working Group) announces a conference on the use of XML by the US Legislative Branch. This Conference on Congressional Organizations' Application of XML (COAX) is co-sponsored by the LegalXML consortium and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration, and will be held on Tuesday April 24, 2001 at the Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC. "The purpose of the conference is to discuss the current use of XML by the legislative branch and the advantages of using of open and standard XML. Congressional organizations, federal agencies, private sector, and non-profit organizations will participate in the conference. The conference will have three panels. Panelists in the first session discussing current XML initiatives are to include representatives from the Library of Congress's Congressional Research Service and the Law Library (GLIN), the Clerk of the House, the Government Printing Office, Office of Legislative Counsel, the Senate, and the House Information Resources. A web site will highlight the activities of the COAX conference and the initiatives currently underway in each of the stakeholder organizations."

The three panels:

• Panel One: Legislative Branch Current Use of XML. The first panel will consist of the various stakeholders discussing current XML initiatives.

• Panel Two: Summary of XML Tools and Value Added Republication using XML. The second panel will include two panelists who will summarize the current state of XML tools, capabilities and major development efforts.

• Panel Three: Importance of communications and open standards. The third panel will include panelists that describe the advantages of using open, industry wide XML standards.